DC Comics is still in love with weekly comics, judging from its latest announcements about its plans for 2008. DC will put out two more sequels to its first weekly success story, 52. But also, DC plans a third weekly comic, on the heels of 52 and the current Countdown. DC will also put out a low-priced one-off special giving new readers a chance to catch up on everything before a summer full of death, destruction and rebirths. We've got the details on the new projects under the jump.

DC started the comic convention season early with an event intended only for comic store owners this weekend. Executive Editor Dan DiDio spilled the beans on the comics that will form the backbone of DC's 2008 plans, alongside the already-announced Final Crisis.

Advertisement

April sees the release of something called DC Universe #0, a 24-page primer on just who's who and what's what for DC's super heroes just in case you've not been paying attention over the past few years. Written by Final Crisis' Grant Morrison and Green Lantern's Geoff Johns, the book will be priced at 50 cents to try and grab the young and stingy in time for the following month's launch of Final Crisis.

A couple of months after that, DC's worst-kept secret — their third year-long weekly mini-series, Trinity — will launch. Unlike previous weeklies 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis, this series does away with the universe-spanning casts and revolving creative teams, with each issue featuring a 12-page lead story focusing on Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman by current Superman writer Kurt Busiek and former Ultimate Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley. The remaining ten pages of content will be filled by stories co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza filling in backstory from the Super Friends' lead.

With both of those books marking continuity-light outreach efforts, those who read the funnybooks for long-running storylines that can't be understood by those who don't have a PhD in DCU will be happy with Rann/Thanagar: Holy War, which brings the Lady Styx plot from 52 to a head, and Reign In Hell which revives the whole "With Satan gone, who shall rule Hell?" idea, after 52 saw DC's Satan, Neron, trapped on Earth.

Whether these projects will be enough to take DC back to the top of the sales charts in a year where Marvel plan to reveal a secret alien invasion across their entire line remains to be seen, but if nothing else, it's always nice to see those little-seen characters Superman and Wonder Woman get some more publicity.